Kemerovo, Russia, February 13, 2018
Photo: Wikipedia The Kemerovo Province sits 2,100 miles to the east of Moscow. Governor Tuleyev, who invoked Christ in his recent talk, won the governorship in 1997 with 95% of the votes, and was re-elected in 2015 with 96.9% of the votes, which is the all-time high for Russia.
“It’s a difficult, restless time, like never before,” the governor stated, “We need unity—unity for all of us.”
“Clergy, heads of all sectors of society—Church, state, and all of our people … we must all solve all of our tasks together—security, stability, the peaceful life of our people…” Tuleyev stated. And offering a solution, he continued, “Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us such unity… Why Christ? For more than 2,000 years already He has had such colossal influence on people, and on their whole lives.”
It is noteworthy that Tuleyev, a politician since 1990, was condemned to death by the Islamic Shura of Chechnya in 1999 when rumors circulated that he, a Muslim, had been baptized in the Orthodox Church. Theologians from Chechnya and Dagestan called for him to be killed as soon as possible. Tuleyev denied it at the time, stating that he was not religious at all, though in the present talk he speaks of “our Lord Jesus Christ.”
He notes that over the past 2,000 years, and before that, there have, of course, been countless other world and religious leaders, but none of them bear an influence that is anywhere comparable with that of Christ.
What Russia, and the world, needs is not necessarily a great leader or riches or power, the governor continued: “[Christ] managed over the course of just three years to change the world for the following 20 centuries... Christ wasn’t a powerful king, He wasn’t an almighty commander, or a governmental player; He had no riches, He wasn’t an oligarch. He lived like a regular person, amidst simple people, and walked among them.”
Christ went to the people and preached to them, and heard their problems and needs, and by His own life, He demonstrated that no external forces are powerful enough to overcome strength of spirit, the power of faith, inner conviction, and the readiness for self-sacrifice, the governor told the gathered public officials and clergy.
Today, leaders don’t come together even in the most difficult moments, “but Christ united people,” Tuleyev continued, bringing them unbreakable moral commandments. He ends by noting that the famous dictum “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” is in fact the teaching of Jesus Christ.
